Mark Backshall, Technical Director, UBS: With the new range of APLINK HRX printers, we’re taking coding to the next level

united barcode systems (UBS) set out to revolutionize the crypto industry and succeeded with its new version. High Resolution Greyscale Inkjet Printer, APLINK HRX, enters the market to improve encryption performance on porous and non-porous surfaces. UBS Technical Director Marc Pascual tells us about his most notable features and innovations in this interview.

United Barcode Systems was founded in Villasar de Mar (Barcelona) in 1994 to respond to the demands of the packaging market. We have been providing marking, coding and marking solutions for over 25 years.

The development of our products has been characterized by the needs of the sector itself and the needs of our customers, which we acquired through our European, American and Asian markets thanks to our internationalization in the early 2000s. We only offered automatic label solutions, but over time, we’ve supplemented our range with high-resolution inkjet printers.

It is a technology that allows us to print directly on porous and non-porous surfaces by injecting ink with piezoelectric and thermal injection heads. In order to provide our printer consumables with the highest print quality, we have developed our own oil-based, UV-based inks and UV LED curing systems.

Glossy substrates do not allow ink to penetrate and therefore require a UV curing system. The UV-LED system The ink transitions from a liquid to a solid state thanks to photocatalysts that interact with ultraviolet light. In other words, the drop injected onto the surface of the box, as it passes in front of the UV lamp, polymerizes (dries up) and remains fixed in position.

Exactly, it is a new model of high-resolution printer with Greyscale technology. APLINK HRX comes to complement the APLINK range, where our other printers already exist APLINK MRX s APLINK LCX.

The new HRX comes loaded with novelties, starting with a new styling line that includes new UBS brand colors. With this renewed design, we wanted to make a drastic change with previous printer models, and while keeping the aesthetic concept, the design is more technical. In addition, we have added parts manufactured with additive technology (3D printing), which allows us to introduce new materials and designs with more complex shapes, lower weights and greater flexibility in production.

Likewise, APLINK HRX printers incorporate the new 100% UBS-designed HR platform, which enables control over the entire design and manufacturing process to achieve the best quality standards and best features.

The new design incorporates the mechanical system of the flexible integration system. Developed entirely by our engineers, it allows you to change the position of the print. For example, you can move from side to side or slant printing in a very short time and without any hassle. This is something very common in current product lines and only allowed by very few printers, so it’s a great novelty and a major advance for the market.

Another new feature is HMI monitors. We present two new models (HMI7 and HMI10) with different screen sizes, designed and manufactured entirely by additive manufacturing. HMI7 7-inch printer can control one printer and can be moved within a radius of one meter. In addition, they can be installed and removed from the equipment thanks to the mounting system that our printers include. The 10 inch HMI10 has a larger capacity and can control up to 4 printers with no distance limit. It can be installed near the printer or on a VESA mount far away thanks to the Ethernet connection, which overcomes the limitations of cable connections.

Both heads allow you to work with new print resolutions of up to 360 dpi vertical and 1440 dpi horizontal at high speeds and achieve great print quality.

In fact, we have designed a system that allows desired elements to be highlighted in the printed message thanks to Greyscale technology. We have christened this system as CPE (Contrast Per Element) and it allows us to highlight barcodes compared to other printed elements, achieving different degrees of readability and all of them are of high quality, which is something we stand out for. We have been asking customers a lot.

The CPE (Contrast Per Element) system regulates the contrast applied to each print element, making it possible for some areas of the message to stand out more than others.

Yes, and we specifically designed it to manage our printing systems. The protocol allows us to provide scalability to the system and to connect various accessories: beacons, encoders, photocells, ultraviolet lamps or all kinds of elements that can be understood as communication peripherals.

With all this said, the features and novelties in APLINK HRX discussed here are only a small preview of what our customers will find. We wanted to take coding to the next level… and it worked.